Meet the Deficient Seven, starring nightly on the Maple Leafs’ blue line for 50-plus games since last season. Whether it’s their own coach’s nit-picking, a critical media market, fickle fans or their own limitations, it seems none of the seven (sometimes eight) can please more than a few people at once.

The various knocks range from overrated (Dion Phaneuf) to unsteady (Paul Ranger), unready (Morgan Rielly) and incompatible (Jake Gardiner). If you say Carl Gunnarsson does some things that don’t show up the score sheet, someone else will snap, “That’s exactly the problem.”

Cody Franson might be the poster boy for all seven, for his annual autumn contract wrangle with a team that can’t put a fixed value on him, yet gives big minutes and trusts him to play with many youngsters.

Never mind the Leafs are 3-1, the topic du jour are rumours surrounding Gardiner, who went from the blue-chip untouchable to trade bait because he supposedly won’t conform to Carlyle’s wish to show more aggression.

The coach seemed to have brought some of this on himself for not restoring Franson and Mark Fraser as partners (before Fraser’s knee injury), which seemed to have upset the balance with the pairings behind Phaneuf and Gunnarsson. With Fraser out a few weeks, that challenge gets harder, although it’s unrealistic to think a team will find perfect health and harmony with six defencemen in an 82-game season.

That’s why the Leafs got creative with the signing of Ranger, still finding his way after three years out of the NHL, and veteran T.J. Brennan, who was aboard the plane to Nashville on Wednesday afternoon for insurance.

“There is always a lot made out of certain individuals,” Carlyle said at the MasterCard Centre. “One guy gets the ‘X’ on his back.”

When Ranger’s name came up (he was on the ice for Tuesday’s winning Colorado goal), Carlyle was succinct. “I’m not going to start singling players out,” he said. “We give Paul the benefit of the doubt, as we do our younger players. If it’s our older guys, they may get a little more brow-beating.”

Gardiner is not getting a free ride any more. After trying to get comfortable for most of the 48-game season from a concussion, he reached his stride in playoffs. But between May and September, there has been a disconnect with the coaching staff and the emergence of the steadier Rielly could make him expendable.

“The media is part of playing in Toronto,” Gardiner said of his name getting kicked around. “You are aware of it a bit. You remember Luke Schenn a couple of years ago? It seemed he was talked about every single day to be traded and nothing happened for the longest time.

“(Rumours) happen with every guy ... you try and block it out.”

Few teams pull off big deals until at least 10 games into the schedule as they figure out whether their training camp plans are going to stick. With Gardiner, it’s believed the Leafs are listening to offers, but not actively shopping the fleet-footed 23-year-old.

While some believe it’s just a matter of time when Gardiner is dealt, it’s a long season and circumstances can change. Certainly, Carlyle was not expecting his right side would be decimated by the David Clarkson suspension and the injury to Nikolai Kulemin just two games in.

Dominating the coach’s thoughts Wednesday were 66 turnovers, ominously leading the league again. That prompted a 40-minute review of the lowlights at the MasterCard Centre on Wednesday prior to the Leafs’ scheduled ice time, in which the visuals were put into intense practice.

“We have a group of players who can improve,” Carlyle said. “It’s attention to detail. We had a video session that showed areas where we were lax. We had people back in position, but they weren’t engaged (physically) inside at their position.

Maple Leafs search for answers as blue line struggles

Meet the Deficient Seven, starring nightly on the Maple Leafs’ blue line for 50-plus games since last season. Whether it’s their own coach’s nit-picking, a critical media market, fickle fans or their own limitations, it seems none of the seven (sometimes eight) can please more than a few people at once.

The various knocks range from overrated (Dion Phaneuf) to unsteady (Paul Ranger), unready (Morgan Rielly) and incompatible (Jake Gardiner). If you say Carl Gunnarsson does some things that don’t show up the score sheet, someone else will snap, “That’s exactly the problem.”

Cody Franson might be the poster boy for all seven, for his annual autumn contract wrangle with a team that can’t put a fixed value on him, yet gives big minutes and trusts him to play with many youngsters.